Mayor can keep job after annexation vote

Updated 10:35 pm, Tuesday, September 2, 2014

The vote to annex a new 50-acre Guilderland housing development on the edge of Altamont Village had special meaning to the mayor of the village. He plans to live there.

Two votes Tuesday night — one in Altamont and one in Guilderland — determined whether Altamont Village Mayor James Gaughan could remain mayor when he moved into his new home.

Both boards voted Tuesday to approve the annexation, so Gaughan can keep his job.

Gaughan can serve out his term, which ends in 2017, and then decide whether he wants to enjoy a peaceful retirement in his luxury one-story home or run for re-election.

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Ten homes are being built in Guilderland on Bozenkill Road in a $4 million project called Pangburn Farms. The land abuts the northwest corner of the village.

Gaughan, 70, lives in a 1887 Victorian on Altamont's Maple Avenue. He and his partner, Keith C. Lee, bought the house 30 years ago. Gaughan, a retired educator, was first elected village mayor in 2005 and re-elected twice. Lee is a retired state worker who recently compiled a pictorial history of Altamont.

Gaughan and Lee realized five years ago that they were getting too old for their two-story, wood-heated Victorian. They searched the village for a one-story house with space, style and modern trappings but couldn't find a home.

They decided to build. Unfortunately, the land they are building on isn't in Altamont.

They went ahead anyway, even if it meant the end of Gaughan's run as mayor.

"It was very difficult," Gaughan said of the decision. "It was setting priorities for my family that, in the end, needed to come first."

Troy Miller, the developer of Pangburn Farms, said his request to have Altamont annex Pangburn was not spurred by Gaughan's mayoral quandary. Joining the village just makes sense, he said.

The development is on village water and sewer service, and village police and fire are likely to be the first at the scene in an emergency. "Everything was pretty much in the village except the tax base, so it made sense from that standpoint," said Miller, who is a longtime Altamont resident and plans to move to Pangburn with his wife and three children.

"It also makes sense in terms of where the line is drawn," Miller said.

The village border runs down the other side of Bozenkill Road. The housing development across the street from Pangburn Farms, Kushaqua Estates, was annexed by Altamont when it was built 25 years ago. Altamont went to court to win the land, and the court ruled that Altamont provided all the services to the homes, so the village should get the benefit of property taxes.

The village will receive about $13,000 in additional property taxes from Pangburn Farms, about $6,000 more than it would have collected in extra water/sewer fees it charges homes outside the village. Guilderland still collects property taxes from the homes, but loses the highway tax revenue, about $5,000.

Altamont village officials told Guilderland officials that Altamont will take responsibility for Bozenkill Road after the annexation.

Both Runion and Gaughan recused themselves from debates and votes on the annexation issue. Gaughan for obvious reasons and Runion because his Altamont home was up for sale; Miller, the developer, is a principal at CM Fox Real Estate, the firm that listed Runion's 3,200-square-foot, 5-acre home. Runion, too, is looking to downsize and remain in the village, though he said he does not plan to move to Pangburn Farms.

By chance, the boards of both the village and the town held their regular meetings Tuesday night and the annexation was on both agendas.